Summit: A Novel - Softcover

Harry Farthing

4.2

1,580 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1455115991 ISBN 13: 9781455115990

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing, 2017

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An action-packed mountaineering adventure in which a mysterious discovery leads to breathtaking revelations about the world's highest peak.

A summit is a summit, and the truth is the truth. But the view from 8,848 meters isn't always so clear. Two men, seventy years apart, push for the top of Mount Everest, driven by forces beyond their control and something inside that says climb.

After eight successful summits, Mount Everest guide Neil Quinn is confident he can handle anything the mountain throws his way. But then disaster strikes steps from the top, leaving him with a lot of questions and a very old swastika-embellished ice axe that should never have been so high on the mountain -- not if Everest's meticulously documented history is accurate.

But before Quinn can even catch his breath, the combined wrath of his vengeful employer and an angry client drives him out of the Himalayas and back to Europe, where the newly blackballed English guide struggles to make ends meet and discover the truth of what happened that fateful day. He soon uncovers the story of Josef Becker, a Nazi climber who sought the top of the world seventy years before, when Europe teetered on the brink of the Second World War.

Quinn's innocent queries into Becker's expedition soon have neo-Nazis, assassins, and history buffs vying to take possession of the axe -- proof of Nazi alpine superiority, and strong evidence that a German climber was the first to summit Mount Everest.

Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Summit follows two climbers across two continents as their stories and movements intertwine across history, culminating in one final push for the top of the world.

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About the Author:

Harry Farthing is an Englishman born in 1964 in Lynton, North Devon, and raised in the West Country. He was educated at St. Michael's Preparatory School, near Barnstaple; Allhallows Public School, near Lyme Regis; and at the University of the West of England in Bristol. From 1987, he enjoyed a successful career with one of the world's largest commercial real estate consultancies. During this period, he lived and worked in London; Lisbon, Portugal; and Milan, Italy; becoming managing director of the company's Italian operations and European Board Director with responsibility for activities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, and Qatar. In 2010 he took early retirement to move with his American wife to Charleston, South Carolina, to raise their two daughters and pursue a career in writing.

Harry Farthing has had a lifelong interest in exploration, archaeology and world history, both published and alternate. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has travelled widely to extreme environments such as the Sahara Desert, the Himalaya, the Amazon and the Arctic North. An experienced mountaineer, he has climbed Mt Blanc and the Matterhorn in the Alps, Mt McKinley in Alaska, Shishapangma, the highest mountain in Tibet, and Mount Everest itself. In 2010 he successfully led all thirteen members of a charity climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa. In 2011 he made a journey across North America by BMW Motorcycle that linked the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans and travelled 2000 miles of unpaved roads above the 60th Parallel. That trip was the latest in a series of long motorcycle journeys that started with a ride from the UK to the Moroccan Sahara when he was just nineteen. An accomplished public speaker, he has also raised substantial funds for charity through his climbing.

Summit, his debut novel, marries his knowledge of world travel, adventure sports, mountaineering and modern history to create an exciting action story that is both compelling and thought provoking.

Review:

''A captivating debut novel that combines grand storytelling with a thorough knowledge of climbing. Harry Farthing is a compelling new literary voice.'' --Susan Sloate, bestselling author of Forward to Camelot

''Breathtaking and chilling...Summit really takes you up into the Everest death zone.'' --Rhys Jones, record-breaking British mountaineer and owner of Monix Adventures

''Magnificent! A compelling, fast-paced novel that reveals a rarely seen dark side of Everest. A must-read!'' --James W. Huston, New York Times bestselling author of The Blood Flag

''A gripper. Takes you up to the majesty of Mt. Everest and into the single-minded 'madness' of climbers . . . what a plot. Fantastic.'' --Sir Robert Swan, bestselling author of Antarctica 2041 and first person to walk to the South and North Poles

''A wonderful story that instantly took me back to my Everest days. Many shades of the legends of mountaineering, such as the great Italian Walter Bonatti and, of course, the doyenne of Himalayan record-keeping, Elizabeth Hawley.'' --Martin Adams, 1996 Everest climber and protagonist of Into Thin Air and The Climb

''Gripping . . . Farthing vividly depicts the challenges of mountain climbing.'' --Publishers Weekly

''Mountain climbing, crime drama, and historical fiction certainly might not appear to be a natural mash-up, but Harry Farthing pulls it off -- and quite well at that...The treachery, the splendor, the whole man-versus-nature element, all well done. To compliment, Farthing adds in a historical mystery...an excellent set of characters...a fantastic read.'' --As Always

''[An] action-packed debut thriller...Farthing's firsthand knowledge of Everest paints a vivid picture of the majesty of the mountain and also the hellish rigors climbers face in trying to conquer it as background to an exciting story, part-thriller, part-historical novel...Marries [Farthing's] knowledge of world travel, adventure sports, mountaineering, and modern history to create a gripping action story that is both compelling and thought provoking.'' --Moultrie News

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